Hey, just wanted to let you guys know about a new report that has just been added to the VCC website. Over the last 30 years, VCC member Iain Sedgman has been collecting data relating to Australian climbing accidents, and now has over three hundred records.. This report examines this data and gives an insight into why they have occured and hence (hopefully!!) how to avoid accidents.

it's alluded to by the line "Cause vary but inlcude ...soloing at hieght (3m falls can kill)". I believe the guy just fell a short way (ie the 3 m), and hit his head. As stated, he wasn't roped. Proves you don't have to fall far to die.. just hit your head badly. I believe he was an army member, and it happend in a gym in Darwin (not sure if it was a public gym or an Army one..)

Cheers, Richard
(and hopefull the site is back up by tuesday .. they sent the invoice to a dud e-mail account!!!! arghhhhh)

It'd be good to see a table on experiance/injury. or inexperiance/injury. As this is a sore point among many older climbers. And without meaning any offence or perticular accident. I have heard of more experianced climbers being injured/killed on easy terrain than I have heard of inexperianced climbers suffering similarly related injuries.

It's easy to be confident in ones abilitys. But there is always danger. Be careful out there guys.

On 9/08/2004 Richard wrote:>On 7/08/2004 Lachlan wrote:>>I have heard of more experianced climbers>>being injured/killed on easy terrain than I have heard of inexperianced>>climbers suffering similarly related injuries.>>Yeah,this is quite interesting. The mountains (cliffs) don't care who>you are, how much experience you have, if your tired or not...

"Popular traditional areas like Yosemite are reporting an increase in accidents among so-called expert climbers. Closer inspection shows that many of these experts are in fact sport-climbing specialists with limited experience handling the special demands of adventure climbing -- such as rigging complicated anchors, acquiring adequate protection when its hard to arrange, route finding on wide open faces where the bolts are few if any, and running the rope out above questionable wired nuts, to mention only a few.
Adventure climbing is a game of experience and calculating risks. Also, special techniques, such as wide-crack climbing, cannot be acquired on anything but wide cracks. In fact the broad strokes of adventure climbing can only be learned while adventure climbing.
Lured by lower numbers, sport climbers can be led to believe that the challenges of old adventure climbs can be handled with little if any experience in that arena. The fact is, sport climbing prowess does not translate into proficiency in 'trad' climbing. Working up the adventure-climbing ladder should be done slowly, with the emphasis on safety and control. Unlike most sport climbs, many adventure routes are perilous even when a climber does everthing correctly."

John Long; from his book 'Close Calls - Climbing mishaps & near-death experiences'.